Is that you, 007? (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Is that you, 007?

JAMES bond-style computer technology is being used by two Cotswold companies to make our world a safer and more secure place.

Epinet Communications at Whittington is using 'biometrics' to provide a new level of security for e-mail users, whilst Cirencester-based Visionics uses the innovation to make CCTV more effective.

Biometrics is the method by which a computer can 'recognise' an individual person, by their face, finger print, 'eye print', signature or voice. Both companies are working with facial recognition.

Katie Belton of Epinet, which claims to have scored a world first by developing biometrically secure e-mail, explained: "Any camera attached to a desktop or laptop computer will be able to biometrically recognise the unique characters of the human face.

"The software tracks about 2,000 potentially different attributes of each human face and then continues to refine each attribute to the individual user's profile - thus making identical duplicate faces about a million-to-one chance."

In a nutshell, the computer will know if it's you that are trying to read your e-mails or an imposter who knows your password. And whilst that might be a small concern for those of us who use e-mail share jokes and silly pictures with our friends, it offers massive security benefits for businesses.

Epinet, which operates from two converted tythe barns, where the office furniture includes a grand piano, was last year ranked the top 'interactive agency' in the south west by New Media Age and one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the UK by the Sunday Times Track 100 scheme.

Meanwhile, at the Cirencester Business Park, the Visionics Corporation is working with Securicor Information Systems and Essex Police in trials of a system that automates the process of matching suspect images from CCTV and e-fits, the computer version of photofits.

Visionics' FaceIt system allows a computer to quickly and accurately match a face on a CCTV camera or an e-fit with police 'mugshots'. The Essex police database currently holds more than 160,000 pictures of known criminals or suspects.

Visionics, based in New Jersey, Washington DC and California, with a British operation at Love Lane, Cirencester, is the worldwide leader in identification technologies and systems.

Its systems are already used widely in the States, where its airport customer list - in the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11 - is rapidly growing.

Pictured: Visionics' FaceIt system in action.